Forex Cards

In the blog, we will compare multiple forex cards. These cards have been tried and tested at hotels, grocery stores, bars, college book store, gas stations etc. THEY WORK! and they work really well.

I have used Axis bank, SBI and HDFC Dollar card so far. All of them works fine. Reason? Well, they are either a Visa card or Master card.

• Visa and Master card don’t actually issue or distribute credit cards. Instead, they are payment networks — they process payments between banks and merchants for credit card purchases.
• The bank that issues the card matters much more than the payment network. Interest rates, fees, and most rewards and perks on a credit card are set by the issuing bank, such as Citi, Wells Fargo, Capital One or your local community bank.

So let’s list out all the forex cards

1. Centrum
2. Axis (personally used)
3. Thomas cook (personally used)
4. HDFC (personally used)
5. ICICI
6. E-Bix
7. DCB
8. Niyo
9. Kotak
10. Cox and Kings (personally used)
11. Indusind
12. SBI ((personally used)
13. CITI
14. Bank of Baroda

Forex 2020 December Rates

Name	Forex rates( Currency Notes)	Website link
Centrum
Axis Bank	71.45	https://application.axisbank.co.in/WebForms/currency-convert-forex/index.aspx
Thomas Cook	75.79	https://www.thomascook.in/foreign-exchange
HDFC	71.58	Forex rates – HDFC Bankwww.hdfcbank.com › content › bbp › repositories › rates
ICICI	70.55	https://instantforex.icicibank.com/instantforex/forms/MicroCardRateView.aspx
Ebix	79.39 (cash)	https://www.buyforex.com/buy-forex-online?utm_source=ebixcash&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=buy_forex
DCB	71.15	https://www.dcbbank.com/cms/showpage/page/forex-rates
Niyo	73.64	https://campaigns.goniyo.com/LP3/
Kotak Mahindra Bank	71.10 (cash)	https://www.kotak.com/en/rates/forex-rates.html
Cox and Kings		https://www.coxandkings.com/travelservices/promotion/students-special/index.shtml
Indusin	75.8435 (cash)	https://indusforex.indusind.com/Order/Index?gaMode=buyforex
SBI	71.80	https://www.sbi.co.in/documents/16012/1400784/FOREX_CARD_RATES.pdf
Citi	72.05	https://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/pdf/card-Rate.pdf
Book my forex	74.28	https://www.bookmyforex.com/

Note: These rates are as of early December 2020. Please use them for reference purpose only.

I have personally used an SBI forex card to transfer money in my chase account. I have been using it for two years now. I go to the bank, → show them these two cards, → tell them I want to transfer money from forex to my bank account → and BAM, MY MONEY IS THERE!! To date, I never faced any problem. The cash is assigned according to the rate on that particular day. Let’s say I got the money transferred at 1 USD = 70 INR, and the rate suddenly increases to, let’s say, 1 USD = 73 INR; even if it hikes, I got the dollar at 70 INR, which locks the price for me.

It’s there, and it’s going to be there. I call forex cards gift cards. You put the money once, and it is going to be there.

I have used Axis bank, SBI and HDFC Dollar card, and the most recent one is the Thomas cook.

Honestly, I never had any of the cards above because they are either master cards or visas. Visa or Master card does not issue cards, but they are a payment gateway. So they are accepted everywhere. It’s the banks that define any charges like an issuance or a cash withdrawal charge.

Let’s make things simpler for you. The only thing you should focus on is the rate & ease of loading money; that’s it! I am not even kidding. Anything else doesn’t even matter because once you come here, you will either use a Debit/Credit card with a US bank account. And there is no point in using forex unless you transfer money to your US account.

Let’s put down all the cards there are, and I will leave another blog link below.

1. Centrum
2. Axis (personally used)
3. Thomas cook (personally used)
4. HDFC (personally used)
5. ICICI
6. E-Bix
7. DCB
8. Niyo
9. Kotak
10. Cox and Kings (personally used)
11. Indusind
12. SBI ((personally used)
13. CITI
14. Bank of Baroda
15. Bookmyforex

Here are a couple of points which you should keep in mind:

1. There are no swiping charges for these cards. If you go to a store, you will not pay any extra charges for swiping your card.
2. Companies make money when you take out cash through an ATM, so never make that mistake. If you are taking out dollars, you will be charged a surcharge of sometimes $2 to $5. That’s why it’s not recommended to take out cash from Forex cards.
3. Always have the receipt of the dollars you get. When you travel across the country, always have the receipt of forex cards and the cash you are getting out. Not as important to keep one for the forex card but definitely for the dollars(money) you are carrying. A lot of times, airport security can ask for that receipt. It’s a good practice, so always keep it on your phone.

As we saw earlier, the rates of Bookmyforex was the lowest, but the only problem with them was the poor customer service. In my experience, I used 300 of the 500 bucks and wanted those 200$ back, but there were certain issues, and hence, BookMyForex is not the most ideal in that scenario. But that’s about it.

I can go on about small fees like service charges, fees on issuing a new card, etc., but since we are talking conversion from USD to INR, charges amounting to 150-200 INR hardly matter.

The small amount of money you need is to survive the first 1 or 2 weeks in college because as soon as you get here, you’ll need a bank account with Wells Fargo, Chase or Bank of America. So it doesn’t matter, and eventually, your parents or the loan providers can directly transfer the money to your US account.

Hence, get one of these, and you’ll be fine.

🗣️You can use our BookMyForex link to purchase your card – https://www.bookmyforex.com/?u=X3tIXAFf256633 

Gradicle.com makes a small amount of money when you buy from our association.